Mykhailo Vasylovych Zakharevych (Ukrainian: Михайло Васильович Захаревич; born September 26, 1950, Sosonka, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) — Soviet and Ukrainian theatre figure, actor. General Director and Artistic Director of the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater. People's Artist of Ukraine (2004), Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine (2017).
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Biography
Born on September 26, 1950, in the village of Sosonka (now Vinnytsia Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine).
In 1972, he graduated from the Kharkiv State Institute of Arts named after I. P. Kotliarevsky, and in 1989, he completed the All-Union Institute for Advanced Training of Cultural Workers, specialising in management.
Theater career
He began his professional career in 1967 at the Vinnytsia Regional Puppet Theater, where he worked until 1968. From 1972 to 1981, he was an actor at the Zaporizhzhia Music and Drama Theater named after Mykola Shchors.
Over the years, he held various management positions in Ukrainian theatre institutions:
1981–1983 — Deputy Director of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Puppet Theater
1983–1984 — Director of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Puppet Theater
1984–1992 — Director of the Zaporizhzhia Music and Drama Theater named after Mykola Shchors
1992–1994 — Director of the Kyiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theater named after Ivan Franko
Since 1994, he has served as the General Director of the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater, and since 2018, he has also held the position of General Director and Artistic Director.
Academic and administrative work
From 1996 to 2000, he served as the First Deputy Minister of Culture and Arts of Ukraine. In 2016, he defended his dissertation on the topic "The Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater in the Dynamics of Sociocultural Transformations (1920–2001)", earning a PhD. Professor at the Kyiv National University of Theater, Film, and Television named after I. Karpenko-Karyi. Author of numerous scientific articles on theatre history and management.
From February 1 to April 9, 2021, he was the Head of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
Theater roles
Zbyshek – The Morality of Mrs. Dulska by Gabriela Zapolska
Malakhov – Stop Malakhov by Hryhoriy Agranov
Lucindo – The Cunning Lover by Lope de Vega
Valerik – The Third Pathetic by Mykola Pogodin
Awards and honors
1989 – Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine
1999 — Honored Artist of Ukraine
2000 – Certificate of Honor of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
2004 — People's Artist of Ukraine
2010 — Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (5th Class)
2015 — Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (4th Class)
2021 — Laureate of the Mykola Sadovsky Prize.